We love David Galbraith’s post about his search for EXACTLY where the World Wide Web got started. He spoke to visionary computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee who wrote the original proposal and early coding for “the global hypertext product that would allow people to work together by combining their knowledge in a web of hypertext document”. If you enlarge the photo, above, you’ll see a tiny notation scribbled at the top of the proposal: “Vague but exciting”. That was in 1989, over twenty years ago.

It all took place in ordinary-looking surroundings at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva. What’s curious and strangely charming is Berners Lee’s acute memory of the color of the linoleum on each floor of the building, which was not so ordinary after all…

“The second floor had pale grey linoleum, the first floor, where Peggie Rimmer had her office, had red lino; the third floor had pale yellow lino. The ground floor had I think green lino.”

It IS somehow illuminating to see the exact birthplace of the World Wide Web, which Galbraith calls “a celebration of knowledge itself…both politically and spiritually neutral and something that everyone can potentially enjoy and feel a part of.” Yeah, we sure agree with that…

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